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LiBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERJCA. 



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CHRIST AND THE CHERUBIM ; 



OR, 



THE ARK OF THE COVENANT 
A TYPE OF CHRIST 
OUR SAVIOUR. 



I. M. 1VOTTS, LL. D., 

AUTHOR OF "THE LAND WHERE JESUS LIVED, u AT MOTHER'S 
KNEE," ETC. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BY 

FRANCIS R. BEATTIE, B. D., Ph. D., D. D., 

PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND APOLOGETICS IN 
THE LOUISVILLE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMI- 
NARY, LOUISVILLE, KY. 



'hotf 1 *' 




Rkfymonb, Va.: 

Presbyterian Committee of Publication. 



£ 







Copy righted 

BY 

J A S. K. H A Z E N, Secretary of Publication. 
1896. 



Printed by 

Whittet & Shepperson, 

Richmond, Va. 



The L 
of 



PREFACE. 

The aim of this little book is to show that 
the Ark of the Covenant was a type of the man 
Christ Jesus, the one Mediator between God 
and men, and the only Saviour of our fallen 
race, who gave himself a ransom for all, and 
thereby became the propitiation for our sins, 
and not for ours only, but also for the whole 
world. And in doing this it also aims to show 
that the gospel of love and mercy through a 
divine Redeemer has always been known from 
the beginning, being clearly set forth in the 
types and symbols of all pre-Christian forms of 
worship, but especially in the Ark of the Cove- 
nant, which symbolized Christ our Saviour in 
his two natures and one person, and in every 
essential feature of his mediatorial office and 
redemptive work in the divine scheme of hu- 
man salvation. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS. 



Page, 

Preface, ....... .3 

Introduction — By Prof. F. R. Beattie, B. I)., 
Ph D, D. D , . . . 7 

I. 

The Ark of the Covenant A Type of Christ 
Our Saviour, 17 

II. 

The Ark, in All its Parts and Contents, A 
Type of Christ in His Person and Redemp- 
tive Work, ...... . 29 

III. 

The Cherubim on the Mercy-seat A Type of 
the Eternal Life of the Redeemed, . . 38 

IV. 

The Cherubim and Flaming Sword at Eden 
The Prototype of the Ark of the Covenant, 45 

V. 
The Ark, in its Successive Sanctuaries, A Type 
of Christ in the Church in All Dispensa- 
tions, ....... . 58 

5 



INTRODUCTION. 

By Rev. Francis R. Beattie, B. D., Ph. D., D. D. 



The typology of the Sacred Scriptures is an 
important and useful branch of biblical study. 
Pursued with sobriety and care, it has both 
doctrinal use and practical value. At times it 
has no doubt been pushed to absurd extremes. 
This was certainly the case with Origen in the 
Eastern Church, and with Ambrose and Hilary 
in the Western. The result was the absurdi- 
ties of the allegorical method of Scripture in- 
terpretation, against which sound exegesis must 
always protest. At other times the nature and 
value of the study of the tj^pes of Scripture 
have been almost ignored. This is the case 
with the literal school among the Jews, and 
with all phases of modern rationalism. Eadical 
higher criticism tends decidedly in the same 
direction. This is an opposite extreme, which 
sound exegesis must also firmly condemn. 

There is, however, a proper middle view of the 
7 



8 Introduction. 

typology of the Scriptures which wisely avoids 
both of the extremes above noted, and gives to 
the type its rightful place and true meaning. 
This view finds its basis in the fact that the 
type consists in a real analogy between some 
fact in a lower sphere and another fact in a 
higher sphere. But other Scripture facts are 
also based upon analogy, so that the type has to 
be carefully distinguished from these facts. 

It must be distinguished from certain forms 
of prophecy, where the fact or event is forecast 
in the same language-form that describes an- 
other fact or event. It must not be confounded 
with the allegories of Scripture which prefigure 
the fact by means of a representation which is 
itself largely, if not entirely, fictitious. Still 
less must the type be identified with the sym- 
bols of the Bible, which forecast or prefigure 
the fact or event merely by a hint of some sort, 
more or less definitely given. An example of 
each of these scriptural facts may make this 
statement clearer. The prediction concerning 
the end of the world in connection with that of 
the destruction of Jerusalem is prophecy. The 



Introduction. 9 

parables of our Lord are, in general, written al- 
legories. Water, with its cleansing and life- 
giving qualities, is a symbol. The type is illus- 
trated by the Levitical priesthood and by the 
Mosaic sacrifices, as well as by many other 
scriptural facts. 

It is evidently of the utmost importance to 
understand the nature of the true scriptural 
types, and to be able to distinguish them from 
the allegories and symbols of the word of God. 
The type presents a fact in a lower sphere as 
a complete and well-defined representation of 
some fact in a higher sphere, while the symbol 
is a mere sign, and the allegory a more or less 
fictitious representation of the fact or truth. 
The type is real and definite in its nature, so 
that what it means in reference to its antitype 
can be readily understood. The type as a sign 
is real and indefinite, and the antitype is clearly 
seen to be real also over against the type in 
the Scriptures. 

Dr. Otts is clearly right in ascribing a typical 
significance to the Ark of the Covenant, and he 
has rendered the student of the Bible valuable 



10 Introduction. 

service in unfolding its interpretation in rela- 
tion to the person and saving work of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. He has also taken safe middle 
ground in working out the typical meaning of 
the ark ; and although some readers may not 
agree with him in all the details of his excel- 
lent and suggestive exposition, yet all who 
peruse it must frankly admit that the grand 
outline sketched in these interesting pages is 
alike scriptural and devout. 

We have always been convinced that the 
sober and devout study of the types of Scrip- 
ture renders an important service in showing 
the intimate connection between the Old Tes- 
tament and the New. This fact binds the two 
Testaments firmly and closely together. The 
force of this fact is especially seen in the case 
of the Messianic types. The result of the care- 
ful study of such types is to show the unity and 
harmony of the several parts of the Sacred 
Scriptures, and to reveal very clearly the fact 
that one divine mind must have presided over 
the production of both Testaments. This is a 
matter of the highest value at the present day. 



Introduction. 11 

No one can read what Dr. Otts lias written 
about a single important typical object in the 
Old Testament without having his faith in the 
divine origin and inspiration of the Scriptures 
greatly confirmed. Against modern naturalistic 
views of the origin and nature of the Scriptures 
this is a very valuable apologetic service which 
this volume renders. 

In particular, we have always felt that the 
study of the entire tabernacle and its gospel 
significance is well worthy the careful attention 
of modern biblical scholars. To understand 
the meaning of the tabernacle, with its court, 
its holy place and its holy of holies, to be able 
to interpret the furniture of its various sections, 
such as the brazen altar and laver of the court, 
the shewbread, candlestick, and altar of incense 
in the holy place, and the ark of the testimony 
and other things within the holy of holies, and 
to see the significance of the various sacrifices 
and offerings, especially those of the Day of 
Atonement, is of the highest value in giving us 
a clear and definite view of the saving doctrines, 
of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The Epis- 



12 Introduction. 

tie to the Hebrews is the inspired key to the 
typology of the tabernacle. 

We do well to study carefully the Epistle to 
the Romans in order to obtain clear and com- 
prehensive views of the great doctrines of the 
grace of God in the salvation of sinners, and to 
secure a right understanding of justification and 
sanctification in their relations to each other in 
the recovery of the sinner both from the guilt 
and pollution of sin. Still, we are convinced 
that it will be found very helpful to set the 
Epistle to the Hebrews beside that to the 
Romans in our study of the doctrines of grace 
from the view-point of the scriptural basis. In 
Hebrews we will find the same doctrines of 
grace set forth in a new and somewhat different 
form, and with very special reference to the 
Old . Testament economy of type and symbol, 
Such study will show the full meaning of the 
Old Testament and reveal the gospel under 
the Mosaic law; and at the same time it will 
illumine with concrete reality what is in ab- 
stract didactic form stated in Romans. The 
reading of what Dr. Otts has written on one 



Introduction. 13 

aspect of this wide theme ought to whet the 
appetite of the reader to pursue the same line 
of inquiry all through the Epistle to the He- 
brews. We cannot refrain from adding that 
Dr. Otts himself could well give us something 
further along the line we are now suggesting, 
and we hope that he may do so. 

Another thing deserves notice in connection 
with the study of typology. Its study rever- 
ently pursued tends to conserve and foster evan- 
gelical views of Scripture truth. From the 
nature of the case this is evident, because it is 
a severely scriptural line of inquiry when 
rightly pursued. The history of the religious 
life of the church points to the same conclu- 
sion. Augustine opposed the allegorical ex- 
travagances of Ambrose and Hilary, and at 
the same time he adopted and applied a sober 
view of the types of Scripture. We all know 
how deep and devout was the religious expe- 
rience of the sage and saint of Hippo. Many 
of the Reformers distinguished carefully be- 
tween the types of Scripture and its allegories 
and symbols, and made excellent use of the 



14 Introduction. 

types in expounding the doctrines of grace. 
The Pietists, too, a little later, cultivated the 
study of typology diligently in connection with 
their deep and devout religious life and activity. 
In like manner we observe, side by side with 
the revival of religion which occurred in many 
quarters about the beginning of this century, a 
renewed interest in the study of typology. It 
seems quite evident, therefore, that the right 
study of the types of Sacred Scriptures con- 
duces to evangelical views of the doctrines of 
grace, and proves eminently helpful to a genuine 
and spiritual religious experience. 

It is perhaps in this connection that this 
book from the able pen of Dr. Otts has its chief 
value and importance. The book is entirely 
evangelical in its general doctrinal views, and 
is decidedly spiritual and elevating in its tone. 
This was to be expected when a sound position 
was taken in regard to the typology of the 
Scriptures. Hence, we observe that in regard 
to the person of our Lord as the God-man, in 
regard to the nature of his sacrificial work for 
us, and in regard to the fulness and gracious 



Introduction. 15 

nature of the redemption which we have in 
Jesus Christ, this book is plain, simple and 
scriptural. This is a refreshing feature of what 
Dr. Otts has given for our perusal, especially 
at the present day, when naturalistic ideas of 
scriptural doctrine and religious life are so 
prevalent. No one can read these pages with- 
out edification and comfort. 

The book, therefore, has our hearty commen- 
dation. We hope that it may be widely circu- 
lated and find many readers. Above all, may 
God's blessing go with its message of instruc- 
tion and edification. 



I. 

THE AUK OF THE COVENANT A TYPE OF 
CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR. 

THE Ark of the Covenant was the most 
sacred and significant of all the holy 
things that were used in the typical worship of 
the old dispensation. It was made according 
to a divine pattern that was shown Moses in 
the Mount, and for a specific purpose that was 
divinely revealed. It was a double chest, one 
of wood inclosed in one of gold. The wooden 
one was so thoroughly incased, within and 
without, in the golden one, that the ark, in its 
external appearance, seemed to the eye to be a 
single chest of solid gold, It was two and a 
half cubits long, and a cubit and a half in 
breadth and height. There was a lid of gold 
on the top of it, and, surrounding it, a crown 
of gold, and fitting into this crown there was 
on the lid a mercy-seat of solid gold, the two 
ends of which were beaten out and fashioned 
2 17 



18 Christ and the Cherubim. 

into cherubim. The faces of the cherubim 
were turned toward one another, looking down 
upon the mercy- seat, which was covered with 
their outstretched wings. Over the mercy- 
seat, between the cherubim, there was what 
the later Jews called the Shechinah, a visible 
manifestation of the divine presence in which 
" God communed with his people of all things 
concerning which he gave them command- 
ments." At each of the four corners there 
was a ring of solid gold, and through these 
rings w r ere inserted two staves, one on each 
side, by which the ark was borne and moved 
from place to place. These staves w 7 ere of 
acacia wood, overlaid with gold. They were 
never taken out of the rings, showing that this 
sacred vessel was always kept in readiness to 
be moved on a moment's notice, if occasion 
should arise. The ark contained the two un- 
broken tables of stone, on which were written, 
by the finger of God, the ten commandments 
of the moral law. It seems that these two 
tables were the only things that w T ere inside 
this holy vessel. (1 Kings viii. 9.) Aaron's 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 19 

rod that budded, and a golden pot of manna, 
and, perhaps, some other very sacred things, 
were laid up before the ark in the holy of holies 
in the tabernacle and in the temple. In its 
holy place, the ark was the centre of the taber- 
nacle and temple service, around which all 
typical rites and ceremonies of worship re- 
volved. 

This sacred chest went before the children 
of Israel, borne by the Kohathites in the cen- 
tre of the army, on their marches through the 
wilderness to Canaan. After the conquest of 
the land the tabernacle was set up at Shiloh, 
where it was stationary for three hundred years 
as the dwelling-place of the ark. In the days 
of Eli this sacred vessel was taken out of the 
tabernacle and borne by his wicked sons, 
Hophni and Phinehas, into battle with the 
Philistines, into whose hands it fell in a disas- 
trous defeat of Israel, and by whom it was 
borne away in proud triumph to the temple of 
their great idol. But the Philistines, moved 
by the heavy affliction of God upon themselves 
and their idol, returned it to the Israelites in a 



20 Christ and the Cherubim. 

most signal manner. It was then lodged at 
Kirjath-Jearim, where it remained until the 
days of David, who, when he found himself 
firmly seated on the throne, built for it a new 
tabernacle on Mount Zion. When Solomon 
came to the throne he built the glorious temple 
on Mount Moriah, to which the ark w r as trans- 
ferred from David's tabernacle, and in which it 
found its last resting-place on earth. 

No one knows certainly what finally became 
of this, the most sacred of all the holy things 
used in the tabernacle and temple worship. It 
does not seem that it was carried to Babylon, 
for it is not mentioned in the account of the 
destruction of Solomon's temple, nor is it enu- 
merated in the list of the holy things which 
were restored on the return from the Babylo- 
nian captivity. Some suppose that, in the 
stormy days just preceding the captivity, it 
may have been hidden in some secret subter- 
ranean chamber in the bosom of Mount Mo- 
riah, where it still remains, and that it may yet 
be found and be brought forth from its hiding- 
place at some future day as a witness from the 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 21 

tomb of dead centuries to the historical verity 
of the biblical record. 

The Jews have a tradition that the ark was 
miraculously translated to heaven when Ne- 
buchadnezzar captured the temple, and that it 
w T ill be restored to earth by the Messiah when 
he comes. We believe that Christ is the great 
archetype of all that w r as prefigured and typified 
in the Ark of the Covenant, and that in his in- 
carnation the ark was truly restored to earth 
in his life, which was the fulfilment of all that 
it signified. John, in his apocalyptic vision, 
saw the Ark of Testimony in the temple of God 
in heaven. (Eev. xi. 19.) This may mean 
that the ark is now in the temple of God in 
heaven, in the exalted person of Christ, the 
great archetype, and that it w T ill be restored to 
earth when he shall return in great glory to 
judge men. 

Why was this sacred chest called the Ark of 
the Covenant ? There must have been a cove- 
nant of which it was, in its typical significance, 
the exponent and seal. But what covenant? 
It was, to begin with, the covenant of God with 



22 Christ and the Cherubim. 

the children of Israel as his chosen and pecu- 
liar people, of whom the Messiah, as typified 
in the ark, should be born ; but this covenant, 
in its widest scope, was not limited to Israel. 
It embraced all mankind, because the promised 
Messiah of the Jews, when born, would be the 
Saviour of the fallen world. " Salvation is of 
the Jews." (John iv. 22.) But salvation is not 
for the Jews only, but for the whole world. It 
was promised in the covenant made with Abra- 
ham that in his seed all the families of all the 
nations of the whole earth should, be blessed. 
The covenant with Abraham and the children 
of Israel had a limitizing scope, focalizing the 
promise of the coming Messiah to a chosen 
people ; then to a chosen nation of the chosen 
people ; then to a chosen tribe of the chosen 
nation, and, finally, to a chosen family of the 
chosen tribe. But while there was this de- 
scending and limitizing element in the covenant 
made with the chosen people, there was at the 
same time a world-wide scope in its intentions 
and benefits, embracing all families of all na- 
tions in its ever-expanding provisions. Hence, 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 23 

the great commission of the Christian dispen- 
sation is, "Go ye into all the world and preach 
my gospel in all nations, and to every crea- 
ture." Then the Ark of the Covenant was, in 
the wide scope of its typical significance, the 
exponent and seal of the covenant of salvation 
between God and men. 

What is involved in this covenant ? In our 
search for the true answer to this question we 
begin with the inquiry, What is a covenant ? 
The Child's Catechism answers, in simplest 
words, "an* agreement between two or more 
persons." A contract may be defined in pre- 
cisely the same words. But a contract and a 
covenant are not precisely the same thing. 
The word " covenant " is derived from con and 
venire, to come together, and the word " con- 
tract" from con and trahere, to draw together. 
In both there are mutual obligations growing 
out of the relations existing between the per- 
sons or parties concerned, but there is a differ- 
ence in the mode in which the relations were 
established. In a contract the relations and 
their obligations are created by the conscious 



24 Christ and the Cherubim. 

and voluntary acts of the persons involved; 
but in a covenant the relations may be natural 
and spontaneous, and, in such cases, the mu- 
tual obligations would be inevitable. 

A man and a woman are drawn together in 
the contract of marriage ; but being draw r n to- 
gether in the contract of marriage, there natu- 
rally and spontaneously springs up a covenant 
between them as possible parents and what- 
ever children may be born to them as the fruit 
of their marriage. Thus, in marriage there 
arises, naturally and spontaneously, a covenant 
between husband and wife as possible parents 
and the children not yet born, a covenant in 
which one of the parties has not yet come into 
existence. In the contract of marriage there is 
involved a covenant which binds the parents to 
give to the children that may be born to them 
the best possible opportunity in life, and which 
also obligates the children when born, as they 
come to years of discretion, to give to their 
parents filial reverence and obedience. Thus 
parents and children come together, naturally 
and inevitably, under the mutual obligations of 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 25 

a covenant that began to exist before the chil- 
dren were born. 

There is, in the nature of things, a similar 
covenant between God and men involved in the 
very act of creation. In creation God and man 
came together in the relations of a covenant 
which requires God, as Creator, to give to man, 
his creature, the very best possible opportunity 
in life, and which requires man, as creature, to 
p^ive to God, his Creator, the perfect obedience 
and worship of his life. This covenant is in- 
volved, by the eternal principle of justice, in 
every act of creation. 

Then, the first covenant of salvation between 
God and men was the covenant of creation, 
made on the eternal foundation of absolute and 
immutable justice. It is commonly called the 
covenant of works, because the continuance of 
God's favor to man was conditioned on his per- 
fect obedience to the law of justice in all the 
works of his life. 

Under this covenant man was placed on pro- 
bation in the garden of Eden. The mutual 
obligations of eternal justice in this covenant 



26 Christ and the Cherubim. 

demanded that man should obey God, and that 
God should give him eternal life on the condi- 
tion of his perfect obedience to his law. We 
call this the covenant of justice in creation. 

In this covenant man failed and fell by an 
act of voluntary disobedience. In the fall 
eternal justice obligated man to suffer, and God 
to inflict upon him the penalty of eternal death, 
unless there should be found a way consistent 
with eternal justice to evade this penalty. 

Man by his sin was justly condemned to the 
penalty of eternal death ; and if he had been 
left to himself his case would have been help- 
less and hopeless. But God in his infinite 
wisdom found a way for human salvation by 
making a provision for mercy in a new cove- 
nant of redemption. A competent Redeemer 
was provided for man, who, as his accepted 
substitute, by his own perfect obedience even 
unto death, has made absolute satisfaction to 
violated justice, and thus on the crown of ful- 
filled justice has established a mercy-seat, the 
throne of grace. 

This new T covenant of redemption through 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 27 

mercy does not abrogate the old covenant of 
creation that was grounded in justice, but adds 
to it a new provision for salvation on the con- 
dition of faith in the Redeemer, involving re- 
pentance for sin and an endeavor towards a life 
of new obedience. 

The new covenant is commonly called the 
covenant of grace ; but we prefer to call it, at 
least in this present discussion, the covenant of 
mercy in redemption, and thus to contrast it 
with the covenant of justice in creation. Thus 
the holy God of heaven and the sinful men 
of earth come together, or may come together, 
in a new way of life in a covenant of mercy 
unto redemption. 

This, of course, involves the old-fashioned 
doctrine of man's fall by sin and of his redemp- 
tion by the blood of the atonement of a Saviour 
who died for him as his sacrificial substitute on 
earth. If any object, we can only answer this 
is what the Bible teaches. The Bible is from 
beginning to end the inspired history of human 
redemption. It begins with a condensed ac- 
count of the creation of man, and of his proba- 



28 Christ and the Cherubim. 

tion under the law of justice in the covenant of 
his creation, and tells how he fell into sin and 
incurred the just penalty of eternal death, in 
order that the necessity and nature of redemp- 
tion might be seen and comprehended, and 
thus the story of the gospel plan of salvation 
begins in Genesis and runs through the entire 
book as an unbroken chain, holding all dispen- 
sations in harmony and continuity. It is the 
divine history of human redemption through 
Jesus Christ, who, by his sacrificial death in 
obedience unto justice, has become the begin- 
ning of the grace in mercy, and the end of the 
law in justice, to every one who believeth in 
him. All this was clearly revealed and illus- 
trated in the types and symbols of the worship 
of the old dispensation; and the Ark of the 
Covenant, the central type around which all 
the typical acts of worship revolved, was the 
great type of Christ our Saviour in the cove- 
nant of redemption. 



II. 



THE ARK, TN ALL ITS PART* AND CON- 
TEXTS, A TYPE OF CHRIST IN HTS PER- 
SON AND REDEMPTIVE WORK. 

THE Ark of the Covenant, as a type of 
Christ, was, in its materials and form, a 
type of the two natures in the one person of 
the Man Christ Jesus. It was composed of 
two boxes, one of wood and the other of gold, 
so united that the two together formed but one 
chest. The perfect wood of the inner box was 
a type of Christ's perfect human nature, and 
the precious metal of the outer box was a type 
of his perfect divine nature. The two boxes, 
the wooden one incased within the golden one, 
were so blended and wrought together that 
they constituted but one thing, the Ark of the 
Covenant, in the materials and form of which 
we find a perfect type of the two natures in the 
one person of the Man Christ Jesus. The 
inner wooden box did not have a wooden cover 
over it, but was covered by the lid of the outer 

29 



30 Christ and the Cherubim. 

box, which was of solid gold. This typified 
the fact that the human nature in Christ is not 
coequal with his divine nature. The human is 
finite, and the divine infinite. In the incarna- 
tion the human became one with the divine, 
but not equal to it. The river flowing into the 
sea becomes one with it, but never fills it, nor 
ireshens the salt waters of the boundless ocean, 
but the tide, going up the river, fills it to over- 
flowing, and imparts to its waters the saltness 
of the sea. So in Christ, our Saviour, human- 
ity was deified and made more than human, 
but not infinite, and divinity was humanized, 
but not made finite. Thus the two natures 
were so united in him as to constitute one per- 
son, the Man Christ Jesus, who is the one me- 
diator between God and men. 

The Ark of the Covenant contained, shut up 
in its bosom, the two unbroken tables of stone 
on which was written the moral law in ten 
commandments, inscribed by the finger of God. 
It contained nothing else. (2 Chron. vi. 10.) 
Those tables w T ere so inclosed in the ark under 
the golden lid, on which the mercy-seat rested, 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 31 

that they could not be taken out without re- 
moving the niercv-seat and breaking open the 
holy chest. In this we find a type of Christ's 
perfect obedience to the moral law, by which 
he has made full satisfaction to all the demands 
of justice against the sinner, and so shut up the 
law w r ithin himself by his own perfect obe- 
dience. Thus he has become the end of the 
law to every one who believeth in him, be- 
cause, as our Saviour, he has completed and 
closed the covenant of justice made in creation, 
and prepared, on the top of fulfilled justice, the 
throne of grace, on which mercy reigns in the 
covenant of redemption. 

The two tables of the law which were in- 
closed in the ark were not the first ones on 
which God wrote the ten commandments. 
Those tables Moses dashed down upon the 
ground when, descending from the mount, he 
found the children of Israel worshipping the 
golden calf which Aaron had made ; and they 
were broken in pieces and left in fragments 
upon the earth, typifying the power of the bro- 
ken law unto condemnation against all w r ho do 



32 Christ and the Cherubim. 

not accept Christ as their Saviour in the cove- 
nant of redemption. Those broken tables are 
the symbols of the law as broken by the dis- 
obedience of man in the covenant of justice 
which was made with him in his creation. All 
men are under the law. Those in Christ are 
under the unbroken tables of the law, that is, 
under the law as fulfilled by him, and so they 
are delivered from its curse. Those who are 
out of Christ, living in the world without 
Christ, are under the broken law, and so they 
are under its curse. " For as many as are of 
the works of the law are under the curse : for 
it is written, Cursed is every one that con- 
tinueth not in all things which are written in 
the book of the law to do them." But it is 
also written, " Christ hath redeemed us from 
the curse of the law, being made a curse 
for us." * 

The ark, properly speaking, consisted of the 
holy chest which contained the law, sealed up 
in it. That chest constituted the foundation 
on which the mercy-seat, and all that belonged 
to it, rested. In all this the mediatorial per- 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 33 

son and redemptive work of Christ our Saviour 
was typified ; and the glorious fact was taught 
that Christ Jesus, by the blood of his vicarious 
atonement, has closed the covenant of justice, 
and made it the foundation for the new cove- 
nant of mercy. 

The place for the mercy-seat was on the top 
of the golden lid of the chest that contained, 
shut up in its bosom, the unbroken tables of 
the law. It was not the lid itself, but a sepa- 
rate piece of solid gold fitting in the golden 
crow T n around the lid. This teaches that it is 
only out of the finished and crowned work of 
justice that mercy can shine forth for the salva- 
tion of sinners. It is only when mercy and 
truth meet together that righteousness and 
peace can kiss each other. 

The great problem of human salvation is to 
find a way in which God can be just while jus- 
tifying the unjust. The gospel is the only so- 
lution : "God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." This gospel was written in 



34 Christ and the Cherubim. 

all the types of the worship of the old dispen- 
sation. It was typified in all the parts and 
contents of the ark ; and the mercy-seat, on 
the top of fulfilled justice, was a type of Christ 
our Saviour in the completion of his redemp- 
tive work, by which he has become " the pro- 
pitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, 
but also for the sins of the whole world." 

Over the mercy-seat, between the cherubim, 
there was a visible manifestation of the pres- 
ence of God with his people, in which, in some 
mysterious way, he met and " communed with 
them of all things concerning which he gave 
them commandments." As to its appearance, 
we infer, from scriptural and Talmudic allu- 
sions to it, that it was a brilliant light envel- 
oped in a cloud of smoke, and so concealed 
that the cloud alone was, for the most part, 
visible, but, on special occasions, the glory of it 
appeared as a flame in a luminous cloud. The 
post-biblical Jews named this visible manifes- 
tation of the divine presence over the mercy- 
seat the Shechinah. This name is not found 
in the Bible, but the thing it designates is 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 35 

clearly and frequently referred to. It was first 
used in the Targums, especially by Onkelos 
and Jonathan, to avoid ascribing corporeity to 
God in his presence among men. Where the 
Hebrew, in Exodus xxv. 8, reads, "Let them 
make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among 
them," Onkelos has, "that my Shechinah may 
dwell among them." And in the description of 
the dedication of the temple, where the Hebrew, 
in 1 Kings viii. 13, makes Solomon say, " I 
have built thee a house to dwell in, a settled 
place for thee to abide in forever," the Targum 
of Jonathan reads, " I have built the house of 
the sanctuary for the house of the Shechinah 
forever." 

We adopt this title, not from the superstitious 
motive that prompted the Jews to invent it, but 
because it is convenient and expressive, and be- 
cause it denotes the fact that, even in the convic- 
tion of the Talmudic Jews, the visible manifes- 
tation of the divine presence over the ark was 
the significant thing that gave vitality and worth 
to the worship of the tabernacle and temple. 

The Shechinah over the mercy-seat on the 



36 Christ and the Cherubim. 

ark had a special typical significance, showing 
that it is only in and through Christ, as typified 
in the ark, that God can dwell among men. 

There was no ark in the second temple, and 
consequently no Shechinah. The Jews lamented 
this as a mark of divine favor wanting to that 
temple, and they expected the restoration of 
the Shechinah at the coming of the Messiah. 
Jonathan paraphrases Hag. i. 8 thus: "I will 
cause my Shechinah to dwell in it (the second 
temple) in glory." Christ came in person to 
the second temple. In it he was presented to 
the Lord in his infancy, and he ministered in it, 
claiming it as his Father's house, and he 
cleansed it from human pollution at the begin- 
ning and end of his earthly ministry. Thus 
he conferred upon it, by his real presence in it, 
a greater glory than that of the first temple, in 
which he typically dwelt in the Ark of the Cove- 
nant in its most holy place. But the type was 
more fully realized in its great antitype, in that 
"the Word was made flesh and dwelt among 
men, full of grace and truth/' and men beheld 
his glory, " as the glory of the only begotten of 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 37 

the Father." And the Shechinah, or rather the 
reality of which it was the type, is still with the 
church on earth in the perpetual fulfilment of 
the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world." 



III. 

THE CHERUBIM ON THE MERCY-SEAT A 
TYPE OF THE ETERNAL LIFE OF THE 
REDEEMED. 

BOTH ends of the mercy-seat were beaten 
out and fashioned into cherubim. We 
can never know exactly what was the form of 
these mystic figures. They had faces and 
wings, but otherwise their form and shape are 
not clearly described. Those seen by Ezekiel 
in vision had the form of composite creatures, 
of which the man, lion, ox and eagle were the 
elements. The peculiar cherubic form is, and 
perhaps will always remain, an impenetrable 
mystery. But this we know, whatever may 
have been their shape and form, they were not 
images of persons or things in heaven or on 
earth ; for all such images were expressly pro- 
hibited by the law contained in the ark under 
them. They were types, and types are not 
images of things, but symbols of thought. As 
the ark, in all its parts and contents, was a type 

38 



The Cherubim on the Mercy- Seat. 39 

of Christ our Saviour, it follows the cherubim 
on the mercy-seat must have been typical of 
some great truth pertaining to human salvation. 

It could not be that they were designed, as 
some have thought, to represent the angels as 
bending over the mercy-seat, " desirous of look- 
ing into the mystery of human redemption," be- 
cause they were themselves a part of the very 
mercy-seat itself, being the two ends of it 
beaten out and fashioned into mystic figures. 
They could no more be images of glorified 
saints than of angels that never fell. 

As they were a part of the very mercy-seat 
itself, it seems that they- must have been de- 
signed to typify the full result of the mercy of 
God towards men through Christ our Saviour, 
whose person and redemptive work were typi- 
fied in the ark which they overshadowed with 
their outstretched wings. That result is the 
deliverance from the death of sin and the gift 
of eternal life. "The wages of sin is death; 
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 
Christ our Lord." (Bom. vi. 23.) 

The ark, in all that was under the mercy-seat, 



40 Christ and the Cherubim. 

typified Christ in all that he has done to take 
away the death-penalty of sin. By his perfect 
obedience, even unto death, he has closed the 
covenant of justice under which the fallen race 
is lost and doomed to eternal death. The 
mercy-seat on the ark typified the result of all 
that Christ our Saviour has done in order to 
open for us the covenant of mercy in redemption 
unto eternal life. And hence the cherubim, 
arising out of the very mercy-seat itself, sym- 
bolized the eternal life of the redeemed, which 
is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. The cherubim were not images of the 
saints in heaven, but of the eternal life itself 
which redeemed men live in glory. 

The cherubim are everywhere in Scripture 
spoken of as " the living creatures," showing that 
life itself is the central thought in their typical 
signification. The life they represent is life 
from death — the life of redemption — life that 
had been forfeited under justice but restored 
through mercy — that eternal life which is the 
gift of God through Jesus Christ the Redeemer 
and Saviour of men. 



The Cherubim on the Mercy-Seat. 41 

We cannot reiterate it too often, that the 
cherubim were not images of the glorified forms 
of men, but mystic figures, that symbolized the 
fulness and felicity of the eternal life of the re- 
deemed human souls in the glory of heaven. 
Jesus our Redeemer and Saviour is spoken of 
as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of 
the world, and John, in his apocalyptic vision, 
saw him on the throne in heaven as the Lamb 
that had been slain from the foundation of the 
world. This does not warrant us to expect to 
find Jesus in heaven in the shape and form of 
a lamb; but we will find in him the reality of 
all that of which the sacrificial lamb was the 
type and symbol. Just so, we are not to expect 
to find the saints in heaven, who have been re- 
deemed from sin through the grace of Christ, 
in the shape and form of the cherubim that 
were on the mercy-seat of the ark, or of the 
cherubim that appeared in vision to Ezekiel 
and John, but we will find in their eternal life 
in heaven all the ineffable greatness and glory 
that those cherubim typically represented. 

Any one who will carefully read what is said 



42 Chkist and the Cherubim. 

of the cherubim in the Book of Ezekiel, and 
compare it with what is said of the living crea- 
tures in the Book of Revelation, cannot fail to 
see that the living creatures and the cherubim 
are the same, and that the vision of the prophet 
was substantially the same as that of the apos- 
tle. It was in both instances a vision of the 
throne of God in the kingdom of redemption. 
The living creatures of Revelation — not dr t oia, 
but £am — are undoubtedly identical with the 
cherubim of Ezekiel's vision. The cherubim 
stood around and supported the throne of re- 
demption, and w r ere associated around the Lamb 
with the four and twenty elders and the hosts of 
the redeemed, with whom they joined in sing- 
ing the new song of redemption, which none 
but those redeemed by the blood of Christ, as 
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world, can sing. (Ezek. i. and Rev. iv.) This 
settles the question. The cherubim on the 
mercy-seat and those seen by Ezekiel and John, 
and cherubim wherever they are mentioned in 
Scripture, are identical, and they typically 
represent the eternal life of the redeemed in 



The Cherubim on the Mercy- Seat. 43 

heaven, They symbolize the eternal life of 
that innumerable host that are saved by Christ 
our Redeemer out of every nation and kindred 
and tribe and tongue of earth. 

We shall not attempt to interpret the sym- 
bolic meaning of their composite forms and di- 
verse faces, and of their wings that were full of 
eyes, and of the wheels that revolved within 
wheels, except to say, in general terms, that all 
these characteristics typified the might and 
majesty, the wisdom and glory, and the fulness 
and felicity of the eternal life of the redeemed. 
We know not in detail what that life shall be, 
and so it cannot be expressed in words nor re- 
presented to our senses in symbols that can 
now be fully unfolded and comprehended. And 
all this is in full accord with the uniform teach- 
ing of Holy Scripture, that the life that is eter- 
nal is spiritual, and can be only spiritually 
discerned. It can be represented to us now 
only as shadows in types and symbols. "Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
entered into the heart of man, the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love him." 
There is more glory in the eternal life of the 



44 Christ and the Cherubim. 

redeemed in heaven than the highest imagina- 
tion of earth can conceive. This does not mean 
that the blessings of the eternal life are all 
future, but that they are spiritual, and therefore 
they cannot now be adequately represented to 
the senses of our physical perception. All that 
we can now say is, " Beloved, now are we the 
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what 
we shall be ; but we know that when he shall 
appear we shall be like him ; for we shall see 
him as he is." When we shall see Christ our 
Saviour in all the fulness in which the Ark of 
the Covenant of our salvation typified him, then 
shall we appear in all the fulness of that eternal 
life that was typified in the cherubim on the 
mercy-seat. And in the meantime, while we 
wait in faith for the day of our full redemption, 
we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, 
because he hath given us of his Spirit. And 
we have seen and do testify that the Father 
hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the 
world. "And we know that the Son of God is 
come, and hath given us an understanding, that 
we know him that is true, even his Son Jesus 
Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." 



IV. 

THE CHERUBIM AXD FLAMING SWORD AT 
ED EX THE PROTOTYPE OF THE ARK OF 
2 HE COVENANT. 

WHEN man fell, God did not forsake the 
earth and deliver it over to the undis- 
puted dominion of Satan, and leave man to 
perish in eternal death under the penalty of 
justice incurred by his disobedience to the law 
of the covenant of his creation. He began the 
work of redemption immediately, with the pro- 
mise that " the seed of the woman should 
bruise the head of the serpent." In the eve- 
ning of that fatal day Adam and Eve u heard 
the voice of the Lord God walking in the gar- 
den." It was not the sound of speech, but the 
sound of a footfall, they heard. In some way 
they became conscious that the Lord God was 
approaching them. The voice of the Lord God 
was, doubtless, the Eternal Word, the second 
person in the adorable Trinity, which after- 
wards was made flesh and dwelt' among men. 

45 



46 Christ and the Cherubim. 

Thus, immediately on the heels of the fall, 
Christ our Saviour appeared on earth to begin 
the work of human redemption. God could no 
longer save man by dealing with him in the 
garden of Eden, where he was under the law 
of justice in the covenant of his creation. In 
the garden of Eden he could do nothing for 
man except to inflict upon him the penalty of 
eternal death, which his disobedience justly 
deserved. The garden of Eden was the domain 
of the covenant of creation, and was under the 
dominion of absolute justice as the law of that 
covenant. So long as man remained in it 
after his fall he was under the law of the cove- 
nant of his creation, and, consequently, under 
the sentence of violated justice. Under that 
law he was condemned to eternal death, that 
is, to endless life in sin and its misery. 

The garden of Eden, after the fall of man, 
was no longer the paradise of life and the joys 
of life, but was the domain of death and the 
abode of despair. Not in wrath, but in love, 
God drove fallen man out of the garden of 
Eden, because, if he had been left in it after 



Prototype of the Ark of the Covenant. 47 

his fall, he would have remained, by the cove- 
nant of his creation, under the law of justice, 
and thus, by the very act of his remaining, he 
would have put forth his hand and taken of the 
tree of life, and, by eating thereof, would have 
lived on forever in the endless death of sin. 
He was taken out of the garden, which, in con- 
sequence of his sin, had become the dominion 
of death, in order that he might be transferred 
from the dominion of justice in the covenant of 
his creation and placed under the law of mercy 
in the new covenant of redemption. This was 
the only way in which it was possible for God 
to rescue the fallen race and save men from 
the penalty of eternal death, that is, endless 
life in the misery of sin. When driven out of 
the garden of Eden, mercy met fallen man at 
the gate as he fled from, justice, and received 
him. under the new covenant of redemption. 

This new covenant required a new system of 
worship. Henceforth man is to be saved, not 
by his own obedience to the law of justice, but 
by his faith in the person and mediation of a 
Saviour who would come, as the seed of the 



48 Christ and the Cherubim. 

woman, to braise the head of the serpent. By 
thus satisfying the demands of justice, Christ 
has shut the gate of death ; and he has opened 
the door of life by providing for sinful men " a 
new and living way " of reconciliation and com- 
munion with God. This new relation of man 
to God in the covenant of redemption de- 
manded a new form of worship, having sym- 
bols and ceremonies that set forth the doctrine 
of human redemption by the sacrificial atone- 
ment of a living Redeemer. 

Accordingly, we find that an altar was dedi- 
cated just outside of the gate of the garden of 
Eden, and the sacrifice of animals was divinely 
appointed as a didactic form of worship, typi- 
fying the great sacrifice that the promised Re- 
deemer would make of himself for man in order 
that he might be the Saviour of our lost race. 

It is quite evident that there was, from the 
Tery beginning, an altar of worship, and also a 
service of sacrifices and offerings. The altar 
for blood sacrifice stands on the very threshold 
of the history of man after the fall. Inspira- 
tion does not give an account of the origin of 



Prototype of the Ark of the Covenant. 49 

this mode of worship, but, as it is introduced to 
our notice at the very beginning of human his- 
tory as a mode of worship divinely approved, 
we must suppose that it originated as a divine 
institution. We have a hint as to the divine 
origin and date of this primitive institution in 
the fact recorded in Gen. iii. 21, that " the 
Lord God made coats of skin and clothed" 
Adam and Eve in them immediately after the 
fall. The best theologians suppose that the 
skins were taken from animals that were 
offered in sacrifice. When, in the process of 
time, or in the end of the days, perhaps on the 
Sabbath, at the end of the week days, Cain and 
Abel "brought their offerings, they must have 
come to a certain place where it was customary 
to worship. From this we infer that there was 
a standing altar that was the haly try sting 
place between Jehovah and his worshippers. 
This is implied in the expression that they 
brought their offerings unto the Lord. 

It also seems that there was, at the very be- 
ginning, in connection with the altar, an Ark of 
the Covenant, or something possessing its 
4 



50 Christ and the Cherubim. 

essential parts, and similar to it in use. We 
read, in Genesis iii. 24 : " So he drove ont the 
inan ; and he placed at the east of the garden 
of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which 
turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of 
life." There were cherubim, more than one 
of them, but only one thing that was like a 
flaming sword which turned every way. This 
does not fall in with the idea which many hold, 
that the gate of lost Eden was guarded by a 
number of cherubim, armed with flaming 
swords, to bar the way of access to the tree of 
life. The flaming sword, whatever it was, was 
not in the hands of the cherubim ; it was self- 
moving, turning in every direction. There is 
no reason to believe that the cherubim were 
living creatures at all. It is true that Ezekiel 
and John described the cherubim which they 
saw as living creatures of wonderful form and 
motion, but what they saw were symbolic 
figures seen in prophetic vision, mere pictures 
formed in an inspired imagination ; and there 
is no reason to suppose that there ever existed 
in actual life, in heaven or on earth, any such 



Prototype of the Ark of the Covenant. 51 

beings. The cherubim at the east of the gar- 
den of Eden may have been lifeless, typical 
forms like the golden cherubim on the mercy- 
seat and the other cherubic forms that were 
represented in the tabernacle and temple. And 
further, there is no reason to believe that "the 
flaming sword which turned every way " was a 
sword at all. Common sense suggests that it 
was a flame like unto the gleam of a sword 
flashing in the sunlight and turning every way. 
The flame had self-motion, and was like a 
blaze of fire moved by the wind, turning it in 
all directions. Why may it not have been the 
original Shechinah blazing between the cheru- 
bim and turning itself in first one direction and 
then another? Here, then, in all probability, 
we find the cherubim which were found on the 
mercy-seat of the Ark of the Covenant, and 
between them the luminous cloud, sometimes 
flashing out as a brilliant light, which is 
everywhere the symbol of the divine presence, 
before whom alone it was lawful to offer sacri- 
fices in worship. Dr. Kurtz has clearly shown 
in his Sacred History that it was lawful to 



52 Christ and the Cherubim. 

erect an altar and to offer sacrifices only where 
the Shechinah appeared as the symbol of the 
presence of the Lord, to whom the sacrifice was 
offered. It was lawful to erect a permanent 
altar for sacrifices only where the ark had its 
dwelling-place, or where the Shechinah, which 
was the glory of the ark, was permanently 
manifested ; but whenever the Lord appeared 
to an individual elsewhere, sacrifices could be 
offered in that spot also, for his presence in it 
made it, for the time being, a Bethel, and ren- 
dered it a lawful place for sacrifices. But 
when his immediate presence w r as withdrawn 
from the spot, all authority to offer sacrifices in 
it ceased. Then we conclude that it was the 
presence of the cherubim and the Shechinah 
dwelling between them, like a flaming sword 
turning in all directions, that consecrated the 
original altar on the very threshold of redemp- 
tion, on which Adam and Eve and their chil- 
dren offered sacrifices. 

Those cherubim and the Shechinah between 
them were the prototype of the Ark of the 
Covenant, and the original type of Christ our 



Prototype of the Ark of the Covenant. 53 

Saviour, who, from the beginning, appeared 
unto men as the source and medium of divine 
mercy and salvation in the new covenant of 
redemption. 

The cherubim and the flaming sword were 
appointed "to keep the way of the tree of 
life." This does not mean, as many have sup- 
posed, to block up the way of access, but to 
keep open a proper way of approach to it. The 
Hebrew word sliamar Cl££0 means to pre- 
serve and maintain in good condition. It is 
the same word that is used in Gen. ii. 15, where 
it is said that man was put in the garden of 
Eden "to dress and keep it. v And we are to 
note that it was not the tree of life itself, but 
the vmy of the tree of life, that was to be kept. 
This means that it was not to be barred, but 
preserved and kept open. 

There is no difficulty in this interpretation if 
we only remember that man was under the law 
of justice in the covenant of his creation, and 
under that law the tree of justice, which, be- 
fore the fall, was to him the tree of life, had 
become to him, in his fall, the tree of spiritual 



54 Christ and the Cherubim. 

death ; and if man, in Lis fallen condition, had 
eaten of the fruit of the tree of justice, he would 
have lived forever in the eternal death of an 
endless life in sin and its misery. God in jus- 
tice might have left fallen man in the garden of 
Eden, in the covenant of creation, under the 
doom of justice; there, what would have been 
to him the tree of life if he had obeyed, had 
become to him, in his accomplished disobe- 
dience, the tree of endless death in his natu- 
rally immortal existence. Henceforth, not the 
tree of justice in the covenant of creation, but 
the tree of mercy in the covenant of redemp- 
tion, is the tree of life for fallen man. The 
cherubim, and the flame like a sword between 
them, were appointed, not to close, but to keep 
open, the way of this tree of life. The cove- 
nant of redemption is not a covenant unto 
death, but a covenant unto eternal life, as the 
gift of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and 
Saviour. Christ Jesus, by the blood of the 
atonement of his sacriricial death, has closed 
the covenant of creation, in which the law of 
justice was supreme, and opened the covenant 



Phototype of the Ark of the Covenant. 55 

of redemption, in which the law of mercy is 
enthroned on the crown of satisfied justice, and 
he has thus become the tree of life and the end 
of the law to every one that believeth in him. 
This fact was made known to the race imme- 
diately after the fall, and just outside the gate 
of the garden of Eden a system of worship was 
instituted with didactic symbols and types that 
taught in fulness all the fundamental doctrines 
of the gospel as we now possess them. 

It has been thought by some that Moses 
caught the idea of the ark and the cherubim 
from the Egyptians, and that they in turn had 
caught the idea from the Babylonians and Per- 
sians. But there was, no doubt, a protevangel- 
ium preached at the gate of paradise ; and a typi- 
cal form of worship was then instituted, which 
was the common mode among men before the 
flood, and which prevailed up to the dispersion 
of families after the flood ; and so we are not 
to be surprised at finding many religious sym- 
bols in pagan worship similar to those that 
w T ere in use among the ancient Jews ; and the 
fact that sacred chests or cistae similar to the 



56 Christ and the Cherubim. 

Mosaic ark, and many figures of composite 
beings with wings and faces similar to cheru- 
bim, are found to have been common in the 
worship of all eastern nations, does not argue 
that Moses derived his ideas from Egypt or 
any other pagan source, but rather that tradi- 
tions and reminiscences of the protevangel and 
the primitive forms of worship have been car- 
ried into all nations of the earth, but were 
more fully conserved in some than in others. 
The remarkable similarity that has been found 
to prevail in some of the ancient eastern sacred 
rites and symbols of worship and the Mosaic 
institutions is to be attributed to the fact that 
they had a common origin in the primitive 
forms of worship that were instituted just out- 
side the gate of the garden of Eden, where 
Christ first made himself known to men as the 
Saviour of our fallen world. A true know- 
ledge of human history does not teach that 
Christianity originated as an evolution from 
paganism, but that paganism, in all its multitu- 
dinous forms, originated in a downward and di- 
vergent devolution from the primitive truths of 



Phototype of the Ark of the Covenant. 57 

Christianity, which were revealed to man im- 
mediately after the fall, and which all mankind 
held in common up to the time when the dis- 
persion of families began. There were two 
dispersions of families, one before and one 
after the flood. All families which had fallen 
away prior to the flood from the knowledge 
and worship of the true God were destroyed in 
the deluge, and the race had a new start in re- 
ligious knowledge and life in the family of 
Noah ; and hence, the divergences in language 
and religion which now come under our study 
are due to post-diluvian dispersions. 



V. 

THE ARK, IN ITS SUCCESSIVE SANCTUA- 
RIES, A TYPE OF CHRIST IN THE CHURCH 
IN ALT DISPENSA TIONS. 

IT is conceded by all scholars who have in- 
vestigated the question that there was an 
ante-Sinaitic tabernacle. It is also probable 
that there was an ante-Sinaitic Ark of the 
Covenant. The Sinaitic tabernacle, made after 
the pattern shown Moses in the mount, was set 
up on the first day of the first month of the 
second year after the departure of the children 
of Israel from the land of Egypt. (Ex. xi. 17.) 
But it is quite evident that there was a taber- 
nacle in the camp of Israel prior to that date. 
In the third month after leaving Egypt the 
camp was pitched at the foot of Mount Sinai, 
and Moses went up into the mount to receive 
the law and the patterns of the holy things 
that were to be made. (Ex. xix. 1.) When 
he descended with the tables of the law in his 
hands he found the people worshipping the 

58 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 59 

golden calf that Aaron made during his ab- 
sence. We read in Ex. xxxiii. 7 that the next 
day after this event, which was long before the 
work of making the new tabernacle was begun, 
"Moses tool' the tabernacle and pitched it 
without the camp, afar off from the camp, and 
called it the tabernacle of the congregation. 
And it came to pass that every one which 
sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle 
which was without the camp." In this we 
have proof positive that there was a tabernacle 
in the camp of Israel before the Sinaitic taber- 
nacle was made. We go farther back and find 
that the Israelites camped in the wilderness of 
Sin in the middle of the second month after 
leaving Egypt, and there they murmured 
against the Lord ; and the Lord commanded 
Moses "to say unto all the congregation of the 
children of Israel, come near before the Lord ; 
for he hath heard your murmurings." It was 
then that the Lord sent quails and gave manna 
for bread to his people ; and at that time 
Aaron, as commanded by Moses, filled a golden 
pot with manna and "laid it up before the tes- 



60 Christ and the Cherubim. 

timony " to be kept for the generations to 
come. (Ex. xvi. 33, 34.) From this it seems 
that there was in the ante-Sinaitic tabernacle a 
holy place for the testimony. And, going still 
farther back, we find in the history of the 
transactions of Moses with Pharaoh such ex- 
pressions as these, "Moses returned and came 
before the Lord" and "Moses said before the 
Lord" which certainly imply that there was a 
certain holy trysting-place, a recognized seat 
of the divine presence, where God met with 
Moses, and where he met and communed with 
his people. 

We have already seen that the cherubim and 
Shechinah, the most significant parts of the 
Ark of the Covenant, stood just outside of the 
gate of the garden of Eden, and before them 
stood the original altar of sacrifice where the 
fallen race first began to worship. 

There is no reason to suppose that the ante- 
diluvian fathers were ever deprived of the 
sacred symbols and types that represented a 
Saviour to come. It is certain that Noah car- 
ried with him into the ark a knowledge of di- 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 61 

vine worship by sacrifice. One of the very 
first things he did on leaving the ark was to 
build an altar and to offer sacrifices. (Gen. 
viii. 20.) There was doubtless an altar, with its 
holy symbols, in the ark itself. This divine 
knowledge was transmitted by Noah to those 
who came after the flood. The symbols of the 
covenant of redemption have always existed 
among men, and they may have always been 
kept in a sacred tent. If there was not always 
a sacred tent, there must have been at least a 
sacred and consecrated spot for an altar, and 
in connection with it a manifestation of the 
Shechinah between the cherubim as a symbol 
of the divine presence in the midst of sincere 
worshippers. In no age of the world has God 
ever left himself without witness on earth. 
This is the perpetual testimony — the word that 
has been received in all ages as good in the 
sight of God our Saviour — that God wills 
(Oefae) that all men should be saved by coming 
to a knowledge of the truth, that there is but 
one God and one Mediator between God and 
men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a 



62 Chkist and the Cherubim. 

ransom for all. This is the testimony in all 
ages — to fxaprbpcov xatooi- IbiotQ — not a fact to he 
testified in due season, but a truth that has 
been testified in all its seasons. Jesus Christ 
is the Saviour of our lost world in the new 
covenant of redemption, in which mercy, for- 
ever harmonized wdth justice, is enthroned. 
This is the great truth that was typified and 
taught in the symbols of worship that were in- 
stituted just outside of the gate of the garden 
of Eden ; and those symbols, doubtless, con- 
tinued to be used in every form of worship 
unto the days of Moses, always typifying 
Christ, as he is now preached in the gospel, as 
the divine and only way of human salvation. 
This great truth was more fully and clearly 
typified in the Ark of the Covenant that was 
made after the divine pattern shown to Moses 
in the mount, which was, in all its successive 
sanctuaries, a type of Christ our Saviour, as 
the one and forever unvarying way of salvation 
made known in the church in all its dispensa- 
tions. This teaches the fact that there is but 
one covenant of redemption, but one Saviour 



The Ark a Type of Christ. 63 

in all ages, and but one church on earth, the 
church of Christ our Saviour existing in un- 
broken continuity from the day that man fell 
unto the final day of the world's complete re- 
demption. 

The typical significance of Israel culminated 
in the temple of Solomon, and terminated with 
its destruction. The history of the division 
and of the decline and fall of Israel is not typi- 
cal. It was, therefore, typically correct for the 
Ark of the Covenant to disappear with the fall 
of Solomon's temple. The ark in the Sinaitic 
tabernacle, where it was kept in the holy of 
holies, and was seen only by the high priest, 
and by him only once a year, was a type of 
Christ our Saviour in the church in the Mosaic 
dispensation ; in the Davidic tabernacle on 
Mount Zion, where it was always in sight, and 
accessible to the people without priestly media- 
tion, it was typical of Christ in the present 
Christian dispensation ; and in Solomon's tem- 
ple, its last dwelling-place on earth, it was 
typical of Christ our Saviour in the church in 
the millennial dispensation, which is yet to come. 




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